Silence and Stars
by EventHorizon6
Summary: A one-shot about Jim's daughter and how she longs for the cosmos.


**Silence and Stars**

I push my thrusters to the max but they splutter and rattle. They're losing power. Stars, I haven't charged the thing in days and there is no sunlight now to catch with my sail.

"Come on," I growl, pushing the board higher. How stupid could I be you might ask? Well, that's a good question that I take as a compliment. By the moon, if I don't get some sort of light soon my board is going to lose power and then it will be nowhere but down. A part of me says I should turn back. I need to land before it's too late. If I did it now I'd have just enough juice to kill the engines and free fall before lighting them up again and cruising to a halt.

But that's not going to happen.

I know it won't happen because I'm in charge of this board and my adrenaline – my wild side – says touch the sky. So I do. I jerk the board higher. These aren't supposed to go this high. The altitude and the atmosphere surrounding me is killing my machine, but I don't stop. Not for a minute. The clouds swirl around me. I have to make it. I have to make it. Because I've got something to prove.

I can taste the precipitation as I soar upward, higher still, through the clouds at the very top layer of Montressor. My board begins to shake, but I ignore it. I've got to pretend I can reach those stars.

And that's when the clouds part.

I've made it.

Montressor and its atmosphere feel like millions upon millions of years beneath me.

My quivering board dies. I'm dangling on the edge of a precipice. I'm not quite in the gravitational pull, but I'm not quite floating away either. Everything hangs in the balance and for what feels like a life time I am suspended.

All around me is nothing but…

Silence…

…And stars.

My board dips. Life on Montressor is calling me back.

And suddenly I am falling as fast as a star in the Etherium. I am a comet racing downward toward impending doom. My panic flares to life. I realize my horrible mistake, but there is no time now for me to scream because the air current is too strong as I fall like invisible hands groping at my clothing and combing through my untidy brown hair and my eyes open, the piercing green that meets the lights in the sky that are once again consumed by stratus cloud coverage.

I tip myself upright and I see the ground fast approaching. I hit my thrusters.

"Come on!" I beg, I plead, I whimper, I cry.

Because if my engine won't start, I won't be around to admire the stars much longer.

Slamming my foot down and down and down again for friction I pray that there is just enough light for me to land. I plead with the universe. I ask it not to let me fall. Just as I am sure there is no hope for me left, my foot slips and hits the sail ejector. The powerful orange fin that looks rusty in the dark pops up and glows for a moment as the last of the solar energy drains into my engine and then…

It is no longer silent because my thrusters burst into life and I shoot across the ground, pulling the board up right before I hit and I laugh louder than I've ever laughed before because I am safe and I am sound. Tears prick my eyes but are quickly wiped away by stinging wind chill. The distant lights of Benbow appear in front of me, and as much as I despise walking, I slow my solar surfer until I am able to power it down for good and step off onto the solid dirt beneath my feet.

I smile.

No matter how much I long for freedom. No matter how much I long to touch the sky, I will always feel safe on the ground. Picking up my board I trudge home for the night. My dad doesn't know.

If he knew he'd ground me for life.

But I think he'd understand better than mom (who would undoubtedly kill me and, well, what good would that do?). Dad would understand, because I'm just like him in that when given the chance we will reach for the stars and we will rattle them.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath remembering the feeling of…

…Silence…

…And stars.

**A/N: ****This is a short story in first person perspective of Tammy Hawkins, Jim and Alice's daughter. As you can see, she has quite a bit of her dad in her, but her mother's eyes.**

**This was actually inspired by this book trilogy I'm reading called**

**Across the Universe**** by Beth Revis. I'm reading the second book called ****A Million Suns****. I highly recommend this trilogy if anyone enjoys space and sci-fi type stories. It is a really, really good series. I read the first book in a week and started the second book 4 days ago and I'm almost done already.**

**So yeah, this is Tammy and her longing for the stars and how her adrenaline junky side often gets the better of her. I've always loved stars and the wonders of space myself so writing about the stars is really fun. They are truly beautiful and I can almost feel what Tammy's feeling when she sees the stars and hears the silence. Though it's not like she's never seen stars before.**

**Well, I guess I don't have much more to say.**

**Enjoy this piece everyone! Tammy will actually narrate the first book of my Captain and I Trilogy when I finish up The Sky Sailors.  
**


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